Reforming of naphtha has long been utilized in the petroleum refining industry to produce high octane reformates, a high value gasoline blend stock, and hydrogen, which can both be used elsewhere for hydrotreating. Currently, the majority of naphtha feedstocks used for reforming are derived from petroleum-based feedstocks. Unfortunately, petroleum-derived naphtha feedstocks can vary greatly in quality depending on their origin and method of production. Such variability in feedstock quality can lead to lower quality reformate. Additionally, reforming costs can increase due to these low quality feedstocks because they require additional pretreatments before they can be utilized as a reformer feed. To further complicate matters, the expense of producing a naphtha composition from a petroleum-based feedstock has increased due to the rising costs of petroleum-feedstocks. Due to the potential decline of global petroleum stocks, there is a strong incentive to utilize naphtha compositions that are derived from renewable resources.
In response to the shortcomings associated with petroleum-derived naphtha compositions, there has been an increasing emphasis on producing naphtha from renewable resources such as biomass. In many of these processes, biomass is converted into various end-products that can be subsequently refined and converted into a naphtha composition. Unfortunately, these processes still produce a lower quality naphtha composition that requires extensive refining and treatment before it can be used as a reformer feedstock. Such extensive refining requirements greatly increase the overall costs of producing a high quality naphtha composition from biomass.
It would therefore be advantageous to be able to produce a high quality naphtha from biomass that does not require substantial refining and treatment prior to reforming.